


the longest wavelength

by zozo



Series: Here Comes the First Day [15]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canonical Character Death, Established Relationship, Exhibitionism, F/F, Polyamory, Porn With Plot, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:40:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24669271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zozo/pseuds/zozo
Summary: Adora and Glimmer find some time alone, and make a surprising discovery about the past.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Bow (She-Ra), Adora/Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra), Bow & Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Light Hope/Mara (She-Ra)
Series: Here Comes the First Day [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755943
Comments: 91
Kudos: 254
Collections: the corners of today





	1. i wanted you to kiss me…

The Best Friends Squad Interplanetary Road Trip—which sounded like a great idea when Adora had brought it up—is running into snag after snag. Darla is, after all, over 1,000 years old: Bow and Entrapta had made her spaceworthy _enough_ for the mission to rescue Glimmer and Catra from Horde Prime, but if they wanted to safely cruise around the galaxy on a long-term basis, Darla was going to need a lot more attention, effort, and care—TLC which Entrapta, with the analytical assistance of H0RDAC, was more than happy to provide.

Bow’s been spending a lot of time helping out with the refit, but sometimes Entrapta needs some… “alone time” with Darla (and now, apparently, H0RDAC…) and Bow is learning a lot more than he ever wanted to learn in service of knowing when it’s time to give her—give all of them—some privacy.

So he’s working on something else, too, something far, far away from all that. Now that the war is over, and over for good, the palace doesn’t really need a War Room anymore, so Bow is converting it to a general-purpose Tech Room that can serve as an information and communications hub for Bright Moon, and maybe eventually beyond. It’ll also be their ground station whenever they do manage to get that road trip going.

Bow’s even been kicking around ideas with H0RDAC—which, yes, is extremely weird, but for some reason living as a disembodied quantum intelligence seems to be agreeing with the former warlord. He and Bow don’t talk about much besides algorithms, bandwidth stabilization, and _n_ -dimensional network meshes, but there used to be an edge to Hordak that’s just not there anymore. Something that wasn’t impatience, or anxiety, or irritation, but something with a similar texture to all of those, and ever-present. H0RDAC, though… he’s surprisingly chill.

And helpful, too. Part of the research they’re doing to refit Darla involves extracting and restoring data from both her computer core and—well, what’s left of the Crystal Castle’s. It had been damaged when Adora abruptly stopped the Heart of Etheria from activating by destroying the First Ones’ sword, but even before that, someone had gone through and deleted huge swaths of files. Some were completely erased, the data sectors forcefully overwritten with nulls to obliterate any lingering echo of their former contents—but only some of them. Others could potentially be recovered, and H0RDAC had developed a number of methods to do just that.

Not all the recovered files were proving useful. Most had their data or metadata corrupted in one way or another—many could be “recovered,” but in such a mangled state they were essentially noise; H0RDAC had begun to filter those out—and even the ones that were still legible weren’t always important. Nobody needed Light Hope’s detailed logs of her last 161 successful firmware updates.

But they were also finding star charts, circuit diagrams, even technical documents—and what at first seemed to be a uselessly redundant cache, filled with exact but equally-corrupted copies of files they had already partially recovered, turned out to be a blessing: they were equally but _differently_ corrupted, and H0RDAC was able to improve the integrity of those files by 41% on average. So it’s worth the time and energy to leave the salvaged cores hooked up to the Tech Room computers, running recovery algorithms all day and night.

Which is why, when Adora finds Bow in the Tech Room, it looks like the old name “War Room” has never been more apt. Computer equipment in various states of assembly is scattered from corner to corner; a dense carpet of cables runs in myriad loop-de-loops, connecting one machine Adora doesn’t recognize the purpose of to another; tools and spare parts are everywhere, in what looks like total disarray, but Adora’s pretty sure Entrapta would notice if she moved even a single screwdriver.

Bow, for his part, looks thrilled to see her. “Adora! Oh thank gods you’re here, I’m running late—”

“—late to target practice. I know, they’re all waiting at the range. Catra asked me to come find you.”

“Oh! Perfect! Okay, listen, all I need you to do is hang out here for a while and then push a couple of buttons…”

“What? Me? Oh, no. No no no. I don’t touch things, Bow, I _break_ things, remember? I don’t think I’m really qualified to—”

“It’s easy, Adora, I promise. Practically impossible to screw up. Please? So I don’t have to keep Catra waiting?”

Adora gives him a dirty look at the low, and effective, blow. “Fine,” she says, “it’s your computer’s funeral.”

“It’s _our_ computer’s funeral,” Bow says patiently, leading her over to a console. “Look, H0RDAC’s latest… data unscrambler, basically, is about to finish a run. When it does, this thing will turn green and light up, and then I need you to send the data over to Entrapta. I’d automate it, but—it doesn’t matter. All you have to do is—watch me—press this, drag this here, and click this. Easy, right?”

He demonstrates again. It does look pretty simple. Green light, press a thing, drag a thing, click a thing. It’s basically just manual labour. She can handle it.

“I can handle it,” she says confidently. Bow’s smile seems genuine, but it also takes a second too long to reach his eyes.

“Great,” he says. “And you don’t need to stick around after that. Thanks a million, Adora, you’re the best!” He throws his tracker pad in his backpack, which has two bows and a bunch of practice arrows sticking through the top, and bolts out the door.

Adora sighs. She looks at the console. The indicator she’s supposed to watch is still yellow, but if the slowly filling bar next to it is supposed to show progress to completion, it’s pretty close to done.

She hears footsteps at the door and turns back, thinking Bow forgot something, but it’s Glimmer. Adora perks up immediately.

“Hey!” says Glimmer. “I just ran into Bow on his way outside. He said you were in here, but he said he didn’t have time to explain why.”

“Hey yourself,” Adora says. “You’re not going to target practice?”

“Are you kidding? Me?” Glimmer says with a cocky little smile, and flicks a finger playfully. A tiny pink sparkle appears right at the end of Adora’s nose. “Who needs practice when you’re already this good?”

Adora rolls her eyes fondly as Glimmer comes closer, still grinning ear to ear. “So what are you up to in here, anyway?” Glimmer asks.

“Oh, uh, Bow and H0RDAC recovered more of the Crystal Castle data? I’m supposed to send it to Entrapta when it’s done… doing whatever it’s doing.”

“Neat. Any idea what’s in there?”

“Not yet. Maybe we’ll find the rest of the instructions for the refrigerator in the galley,” she laughs ruefully. “Hopefully it’s something a little more useful.” Glimmer nods in agreement and, now that she’s finally close enough, pulls Adora into a hug. Adora makes a happy little sound and snuggles her close.

“Bow was going too fast for a hug, so now I need two hugs,” Glimmer pretends to pout, nuzzling her face pitifully into Adora’s bosom. Adora gives her two big dramatic squeezes and a kiss on the forehead, then a kiss on the nose, and then a slow, lingering kiss on the mouth. Glimmer giggles when they finally pull apart.

“What’s so funny?” Adora asks, picking up Glimmer’s contagious laugh.

“I was just remembering our first kiss,” Glimmer says. “At Spin the Bottle. That little peck.”

Adora blushes as she remembers it too. “It was a _little_ more than a peck.”

“Mmmm, true. You got your hand all up in my hair,” Glimmer shivers happily—and when Adora brings her hand up to repeat the gesture, ruffling through the short hair at the back of Glimmer’s head and scratching lightly at her scalp, she shivers again.

“I was nervous,” Adora admits. “About kissing you. About kissing anyone who wasn’t Catra, honestly. And in front of everyone else? But… it was you. And I wanted to. And I’m glad it was you, Glimmer.” She kisses her again. It’s definitely not a peck this time.

“So, uh…” Glimmer’s almost breathless when they part, and she suddenly seems a little shy. “Did you ever, um… you don’t have to answer, but—did you ever think about… kissing me… before that?”

Adora goes very still in her arms, and for a second Glimmer thinks she shouldn’t have asked, but then she realizes Adora has her shy moments too.

“…maybe,” Adora admits in a very quiet voice. Glimmer feels a zap of electricity go down her spine.

“Really?” she asks, sounding almost awestruck.

“Not—I wasn’t like—look, I… _maybe_ , when we first met… and you were the first friend I made outside the Horde, and you were _so_ welcoming and kind and—and so pretty; and we were having all those sleepovers together and… _maybe_ the thought crossed my mind. Once. Or-or twice. But I—” She sighs a long, long sigh. “I was too hung up on Catra. And even if I hadn’t been, I think I would have been worried about messing up our friendship.”

Glimmer chuckles against her, and Adora feels the vibrations resonate in all _kinds_ of places. “And look at us now,” Glimmer says in a low voice, standing up on her toes to take Adora’s left earlobe gently between her lips for a moment. “Friendship _ruined_.”

Adora laughs an extremely shaky laugh as Glimmer’s hot breath hits her ear and the side of her neck, and that’s when the computer behind her finally finishes running its unscrambling program and chimes.

“Dammit,” she mutters, rubbing her thighs together and waiting for the tingles to settle so she can do what she promised Bow she’d do. “Hold that thought, okay?” Glimmer just giggles at her and winks again.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Adora says to herself. “Press, drag, click.” The blue icon from Bow’s demo is present and accounted for, and she gives it a confident press. It expands into a grid of dozens of smaller icons—a few have a discouraging-looking red X that probably means there’s nothing worthwhile inside, but most of them don’t. She’s about to drag them over as instructed when one of the labels catches her eye.

`⬡igh░/opЎƒ‡·⌐video_Mara_0t2110201[fina∑#┧∄`

_Video… Mara… final?_

“Anything good?” Glimmer asks, coming up behind Adora and hugging her from behind. “Recipe for First Ones’ chocolate chip cookies?”

“Um…” Adora says. “Maybe? But… there’s at least one thing in here I’m pretty sure we already—we’ve already seen.”

If this is the recording Adora thinks it is—Mara’s final message through time to Adora herself—Adora knows two things: she’ll be happy if she never has to watch it again…

…and Glimmer’s never actually seen it.

Glimmer peers around Adora at the screen. “Does that say _Mara_?”

"Yeah. I think it’s the message from… it’s the one Bow and I saw with Madame Razz. About the Heart of Etheria. "

Glimmer goes completely still. “Oh.” Her voice is flat. Adora’s not sure what to say. She feels Glimmer’s arm muscles contract without actually tightening their grip. Then Glimmer says, in the same emotionless tone: “Play it.”

“A-are you sure?” Adora can’t see Glimmer’s face from this angle, but she can feel Glimmer’s body continue to tense up behind her. In her peripheral vision, she sees Glimmer nod, silent, curt, unmistakable.

Without another word, Adora presses the video icon.

It’s holographic footage, but the only holographic emitter in the Tech Room is currently in pieces, so it comes up on the big flat monitor instead: a 2-D image of Mara, looking battered and terrified, sitting in an empty void.

They watch in silence. It isn’t a very long recording. “ _…Adora,_ ” Mara is sobbing on screen, “ _I believe in you. You can save the world we love—_ ” and Adora can feel Glimmer’s full-body flinch when the video reaches its abrupt end. Adora carefully rotates herself in Glimmer’s arms so she can return the embrace. Glimmer nestles even closer, trembling.

“Are you okay?” Adora asks softly. Glimmer shakes her head, but it seems more like “I don’t know” than “no.” She’s breathing deep but erratic breaths, slow inhales and exhales punctuated with sudden gasping hiccups, so Adora just holds her, gently rubbing her back.

When Glimmer finally speaks, it’s not an answer to Adora’s question. “You were right,” she says to Adora. Her voice is still unusually flat. “You and Bow saw this… and I wasn’t there. And I didn’t understand. I wish… _fuck_ ,” she whispers. “I wish I’d seen that b-before… before I tried to… I’m so sorry, Adora. I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, hey, shhhh,” Adora soothes her. “I know, Glimmer. I know. I forgive you, remember? We forgive you. It’s okay now.” She thinks Glimmer might start crying, but the deep breaths continue, and become more regular, and Adora feels the tension slowly start to drain from her girlfriend’s body.

“When, um,” Adora begins. “When I was… when the Heart of Etheria was about to go off, when Light Hope was trying to activate the weapon…”

Glimmer nods without looking up from where her face is buried in Adora’s chest. “When you broke the sword.”

"Yeah. Like, immediately before that. Light Hope was right in front of me, talking all kinds of bullshit about my so-called destiny and the glory of the First Ones, blah blah blah, but she kept… I mean, she was furious with me, she was trying to use the Heart right up to the moment I broke the sword…

“But I think… I think she wanted me to stop her, too. Or part of her did. She kept glitching back and forth between the angry, ranting Light Hope and—and then she’d start talking about Mara, and then she’d get angry again, and Glimmer… I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to be strong enough. And I was so scared, and I was fighting her so hard, and then just for a second, she stopped. She stopped fighting me. And she said ‘do it.’ And… I did it. And it was over.”

Glimmer shudders, then nuzzles even closer to Adora. “Do you think—was it because she and Mara…?”

Adora thinks about it for a second, remembering a room full of holographic flowers. _A sensation of warmth._

“I think so,” she says. “I think… I think maybe anyone can change, if they’re loved, and they want to change, and they make the effort.” She shrugs a little. “It know it sounds like I’m talking about Catra—and I am, a little bit, but… I was in the Horde, too. So was Scorpia. So was Entrapta. I think… I don’t know. Maybe the only unforgivable thing is _not_ trying to fix what you broke.”

It kind of hangs in the air for a minute. Then Glimmer crushes Adora in a hug so tight all the air gets squeezed out of her lungs. “I love you so fucking much, Adora.” And she loves the happy little sound Adora makes in return. “I always—I’m always—” She sighs. “I love you. Thank you for loving me.”

“Oh!” Adora says, a flush rising in her cheeks. “Glimmer!” And she kisses her as sweetly as she can.

“So,” Glimmer says a minute later, “we should probably send this off to Entrapta before we forget, right?”

“Right! Yes! Definitely didn’t forget that, nope.” Adora reluctantly releases Glimmer and turns back to the computer. She’s just about to drag the files over when she notices Mara’s name on another one. The rest of the label is even more corrupted than the last, but there’s no red X on the icon, so Adora curiously taps it open.


	2. …when we find some time alone…

Mara appears on the screen again, but she looks considerably different. She’s not wearing her armoured uniform, for one thing, just a pair of loose drawstring workout pants and a tank top. Her dark hair is down around her shoulders, and she’s reclining, not sitting upright, reading something off a computer pad in her hands. She hasn’t been scraped and scorched by erupting magic. There’s no heartbreak on her face at all. She looks young, and happy, and her vitality comes through even in the flattened-out holo-recording.

 _I didn’t want to die,_ says a voice in Adora’s memory, and an answering stab of pain echoes through her heart, right behind the failsafe.

Up on the screen, Mara sets aside her tablet and sighs contentedly, stretching her arms over her head.

“Wow,” says Glimmer, watching next to Adora. “She was… _beautiful_.” Adora can only nod.

Mara rests her hands on her thighs for a moment and pauses, seemingly lost in thought. She lifts her hands like she’s about to do something, then stops, and slowly returns them to her lap.

“Hey,” says the Mara on the recording, “Light Hope? Are you, uh… around?”

A tall indigo figure appears next to the—couch? bed?—Mara’s lying on. “Yes, Mara, I am here.”

Mara smiles up at her. Even on a millennium-old holo, it’s dazzling. “Can I ask you… I guess it’s kind of a… personal question? Or maybe it’s just a weird one.”

“I am here to serve the needs of She-Ra,” Light Hope says in her familiar mild tone, but there’s a smile on her face that Adora definitely doesn’t recognize. “You are welcome to ask me anything you like.”

The corner of Mara’s mouth quirks when Light Hope says “the needs of She-Ra.” “Okay then,” she says, “and please don’t take this the wrong way, but… when I’m here in my quarters like this… can you—do you—I mean, I know you have cameras and sensors—are you… watching me? All the time? I’m not accusing you of anything, I’m just… curious.”

Light Hope nods in acknowledgement of the slightly circuitous question. “I passively monitor all activity aboard this ship as part of normal operations. However, specific recordings of any given moment are only transferred to a foreground process for active analysis when required by mission parameters.”

“Okay, interesting,” Mara hums. “So if I can’t see you,” she gestures to Light Hope’s holographic avatar, not the computer systems running through the ship that literally surround them both, “I can assume you’re not _actively_ paying attention to what I’m doing.”

“That is correct,” says Light Hope. “Why do you ask?”

Mara’s smile turns mischievous—if she’d been talking to anyone besides Light Hope, Adora would have called it “flirtatious.”

“Well,” she begins, the gentle tease in her voice a surprise to both Adora and Glimmer, “we’ve been on this mission for quite a while. It’s really just the two of us out here. Could get kind of lonely.”

Light Hope tilts her head slightly, an expression of hers Adora was much more familiar with. “You are correct that it has been quite some time since we left Eternia. Are you suffering from a lack of social contact?”

“How could I?” Mara says, “I’ve got you, don’t I?” Adora hears Glimmer take a little sip of breath through her teeth. “Do you ever get lonely up here?”

There’s a moment in which Light Hope genuinely seems to be considering the question. “No. I do not experience loneliness. If I have any such emotional tendencies, they seem to be satisfied by your presence.”

Even on the recording, they can see Mara blush.

“I feel the same way,” she says in a slightly lower register. “You, uh, satisfy my loneliness too.”

Adora feels Glimmer’s hand slip into hers. She gives it a tight squeeze, but her eyes stay glued to the screen.

“And I was thinking,” Mara continues, still in that very different timbre, “about mitigating certain _other_ effects of prolonged isolation.” Her hands, still in her lap, start fidgeting with the drawstring of her pants. “And I was wondering if you wanted to… ‘actively monitor’ the situation.”

Adora’s skin prickles with heat, starting in her face but quickly spreading out to her extremities. Is this… is Mara about to… were she and Light Hope…?

On screen, Light Hope appears to be confused too—or maybe that’s not why the hologram pauses several seconds before answering. “Forgive me, Mara. I initially failed to understand your implications, and the hypothesis I have produced—I cannot share it without violating my etiquette protocols.”

Mara’s eyes go wide with surprise, then her eyebrows go up in amusement. “Oh, absolutely override those etiquette protocols—authority Mara, cobalt-7–4-pulsar-lock. Let’s hear this hypothesis.” She wiggles happily on whatever furniture is supporting her.

“You are inviting me to observe as you sexually gratify yourself,” Light Hope says, not a trace of hesitation or embarrassment in her modulated voice. Glimmer, however, lets out a little squeak of surprise. “Yet I estimate a low probability that sexual pleasure is the primary driver of your invitation. Based on my understanding of Eternian social norms, this is an… intimate request. Your motivations likely have a significant emotional component.”

Mara bites her lip and stops fidgeting with her drawstring, holding the knot loosely between her fingers. “Wow, Hope,” she says, and her voice is a little less sure than before. “Hypothesis correct. All of them. This is me inviting you. Watch me, share this with me, if you want to. _I_ want you to. And yeah, my motivations are…” She laughs a short, rueful laugh. “You got me: there’s a ‘significant emotional component’ indeed.”

The movement of Mara’s fingers against the knot at her waist becomes more deliberate as she anticipates the answer. The moment Light Hope says, “I accept your invitation, Mara. Please proceed,” Adora’s hand shoots out towards the controls and closes the video file.

She and Glimmer slowly turn to look at each other.

“I…”

“Yeah, wow, I didn’t…”

Adora looks down at the keyboard. “I know I’m supposed to send these to Entrapta, but I feel like… maybe we should leave this one out. Do you know how to do that?” Glimmer nods, and taps a few commands, and the icon for the video file scoots out of the grid and off the edge of the screen. Adora drags the remaining icons like Bow showed her, clicks the final thing, and after a few moments, a little banner appears proclaiming `Message sent!` Adora and Glimmer stare it at for a minute.

“I, uh,” Adora starts slowly, “I don’t really know what to say. I had no idea… I mean, I knew they both felt—but I gotta say, I didn’t see _this_ coming.”

“I’m…” Glimmer just shakes her head. “I’m glad we stopped watching when we did.”

“Me too,” Adora says, glancing over. There’s a bright pink flush all over Glimmer’s face. “You okay over there?”

Glimmer mumbles something indistinct, like she does when she’s trying to say something through a bout of shyness.

There are only so many things it could be, Adora thinks. “Pardon?” she asks Glimmer sweetly. “I didn’t catch that.” This time it sounds like “thattazooperto.” Adora tsks. “Not actually language. Wanna try again?”

After a half-hearted growl, Glimmer mumbles again, but coherently this time, “That was super hot, though.”

It… really was, Adora realizes. As weird as she feels about intruding on the private moment—and as glad as she is that they hadn’t watched any more—she can’t deny that Mara was an extremely attractive woman, and her chemistry with Light Hope had radiated like heat from a fireplace. If Adora thinks about them for too long, it starts to turn bittersweet, then just bitter—but if she holds it lightly in her mind, those few minutes of footage on their own—she can’t deny they’d had an effect on her, too.

“I, um, yeah,” she says out loud, and Glimmer looks over at her quickly. “It was. And hey, I know we said—but like, if…” She sighs and closes her eyes for a moment. “I’m just gonna—if you ever want to watch me, um, you know… like Mara and Light Hope… if you want to do that, we definitely—I mean, I think I’d—just… we could do that,” she finishes, slowly opening her eyes to see Glimmer’s reaction. “You and me and Catra, or… just me and you. If you wanted.”

Glimmer’s cheeks are as pink as Adora’s ever seen them and her eyes have gone enormous, pupils too. It’s about as clear a sign of Glimmer’s interest as she could give. It gives Adora the courage to wink. “I suppose you and Catra could do it without me too, but I’d much, _much_ rather be there.” Somehow Glimmer gets even pinker.

“Um,” she says, like if she doesn’t say something, anything, she’ll lose the opportunity, “I—” She casts her eyes down for a second, then looks back up, visibly reinforcing her own confidence from some inner reserve. “I would _definitely_ want you there. And Catra’s going to be at target practice with Bow all afternoon, so… you know. We don’t have to wait.”

Oh. _Oh._ Adora was just putting the idea on the table—she’d expected Glimmer would probably accept the offer, but like, the next time they slept together. She hadn’t meant right _now_ … but she doesn’t object to the idea, either.

“Do you want to get out of here, then?” Her eyes flick over Glimmer’s shoulder to the Tech Room door.

“ _Oh_ yeah,” Glimmer says, grabbing Adora’s hands, and she teleports them both to Glimmer’s bedroom.

She’s kissing Adora the second they materialize, backing her carefully but steadily towards the bed. Adora gladly lets it happen. Glimmer’s confession had given her permission to feel turned on by what they’d seen (and almost seen) too—and now she’s _really_ feeling it. She gasps between nearly every kiss, and moans into Glimmer’s mouth, and Glimmer remembers a word from the romance novels she used to sneak from her mother’s bedside table— _wanton._

The backs of Adora’s legs hit the edge of the bed and she grabs the front of Glimmer’s blouse and pulls them down to the mattress together. She scoots back on her butt, Glimmer crawling above her, until she has her back to the big pile of pillows at the head of the bed. Without any fanfare, she pulls her tank top over her head. Glimmer gives a little gasp of delight as Adora starts shimmying out of the leggings she’s wearing and sits back, just in front of her.

“Um…” Adora says, and she’s blushing fiercely but there’s a proud, confident smile on her face as she undresses, “are you going to… touch yourself too? Is this… are we watching each other?”

Glimmer bites her lower lip. “Yes, but—not right away. I kinda want to, um… watch you, for a little bit, and maybe… see how long I can hold off. But it definitely won’t be forever.”

Adora’s eyes darken, her blush somehow deepens even further, and she seems to forget her underwear is only halfway down her legs for a second. “Oh. Oh, that’s… fine. That’s very fine. With me.” She gives her head a little shake, blinks, and finishes removing her panties, and then she leans back against the pillows, fully nude.

How can Glimmer _not_ stare. The real question is where to stare first: Adora’s got a bigger frame than someone as lithe as Catra, but she’s hardly bulky: she’s _sculpted_. Her abs, her thighs, her arms (gods, those arms)—and that’s just her muscles, never mind her absolutely jaw-dropping breasts. And Glimmer hadn’t realized you could even _be_ a “shoulders person” until she met Adora, but now Glimmer knows she is _definitely_ a shoulders person.

She thinks about how those shoulders have felt under her thighs and realizes she’s not going to be able to put her underwear back on after this. She squeezes her legs together tightly, feeling how wet she already is—how wet she’s _been_ since she was watching Mara’s fingers idling at her waist a thousand years ago—relishing the delicious hunger down there, a feeling somewhere between an ache and an itch.

Glimmer has no idea what her face must look like, but Adora’s got a faint, dazed smile on hers, not to mention stars in her eyes. “Glimmer…” she says softly, apparently in response to Glimmer’s expression, “it’s just me.”

But Glimmer shakes her head. “There’s nothing _just_ about you, Adora.” Adora’s hand, which had been drawing lazy circles on her own thigh, flies up to cover her mouth.

“ _Glimmer!_ ” she says through her fingers, voice breaking a little. “You can watch me touch myself or you can watch me cry, but I’m not going to do both at once.”

“Sorry,” Glimmer giggles, “no more mushy stuff for now. I choose touching yourself, please.”

Now Adora laughs at how polite Glimmer sounds. She makes very deliberate eye contact and slowly licks her lips. “Good. Watch this.”


	3. …and then we can do anything we want

The first thing Adora does is stretch her arms high above her head, hands interlocked, and arch her back away from the pillows. It… _does things_ to her biceps that make Glimmer’s stomach flutter, and what it does to her breasts—Glimmer would never stare like this if Adora hadn’t explicitly invited her to. She wouldn’t stare at _Bow_ like this without an invitation. She feels like a wolf sizing up an unprotected litter of lambs.

She thinks briefly of that night in space—which seems even longer ago than it really was—but the faint edge of wickedness to the way she’s shamelessly eye-fucking Adora now isn’t anything like the real guilt she’d felt when Adora and Catra hadn’t known she was listening.

Adora knows. She definitely knows. She slowly brings her arms down, running her hands over her shoulders and down until she’s holding her breasts in her hands, temporarily hiding them from Glimmer’s ravenous gaze.

“You don’t have to touch yourself until you’re ready,” she says, “but would you take your top off at least? So I can look at you, too?”

Glimmer’s still getting used to the idea that anyone at all, let alone her three favourite people in the world, would want to see her like that. Would want to _look at her_ like that. It never kept her up at night or anything—she’d always had more important things to worry about—but it also never occurred to her that she could be an object of desire, either. But now… if she thinks about it too hard, she almost feels deliriously happy.

She wants to focus on what’s happening right now, though, so she pulls her top over her head and unfastens her bra, casting everything aside in just a few quick motions. Glimmer sits up on her knees and folds her hands behind her, pushing her shoulders back for a moment. Adora’s eyes almost bulge out of her head. _Two can play at that game,_ Glimmer thinks, then settles back down primly on the bed, looking pointedly at Adora’s hands, where she’s still holding them over her breasts.

Adora drags her bottom lip through her teeth as slowly as she slides her hands down, grazing her nipples hard with her thumbs as they pass. Glimmer doesn’t think Adora’s shiver is for intentional effect, but it’s certainly affecting her.

Then Adora’s hands are tracing the outlines of those breathtaking stomach muscles, and then she’s drawing lines inward from her hips and running her fingers through the dense thatch of hair at her centre, quite a bit darker than the blonde on her head. Glimmer stares, imagining burying her nose in that patch of hair.

She’s going to soak through her skirt if she hasn’t already. Luckily it’s just an elastic waist—Adora jumps a little when Glimmer starts moving again, but she watches appreciatively as Glimmer removes it and repositions herself, now wearing nothing but light grey panties. The white lace edges were there when she put them on this morning; the dark grey wet spot was not. Glimmer makes sure her knees fall open so Adora can see it.

Adora sees it. Her eyes go wide and the tip of her tongue tries vainly to wet her lips, and Glimmer has another dizzy moment—Adora, beautiful brave Adora, is putty in her hands right now, utterly undone by the evidence of Glimmer’s lust for her.

But it turns out Adora’s not _too_ undone. Her fingers, still aimlessly combing through her pubic hair, drift just a little lower. She breathes in sharply through her teeth as they make contact with her clit, and Glimmer sees her hips roll upward as Adora starts masturbating in earnest, eyes roving all over Glimmer’s body.

“Glimmer,” Adora says, her voice already noticeably ragged. “Are we—I mean, is this—is this leading up to sex? This is so fucking hot and I don’t mind waiting but I don’t know, I don’t know how long…” Another shaky, sibilant intake of breath as she slips one, then another finger inside herself. Glimmer’s mouth waters. She wishes those fingers were her tongue.

Glimmer nods, and scoots a little closer to Adora, resting her hands on Adora’s legs just below the knee. “I’ll do anything you want, Adora. Anything.”

Adora might have something in mind, because as soon as Glimmer says that, it’s like her fingers shift gears, and her other hand comes up to grab roughly at one of her nipples. The pulsing ache between Glimmer’s legs is almost excruciating, but letting the tension there escalate without doing anything to lessen it turns out to be an almost intoxicating decision. She can feel her self-control crumbling fast, but she knows the longer she holds out, the better it will finally feel.

All the while, Adora’s breathing—and her fingers—are getting faster and faster, and soon she throws her head back hard against the pillows. She whimpers Glimmer’s name in separate, staccato syllables, and the rush of new wetness in Glimmer’s panties marks the end of her self-control. She starts wriggling them over her hips and down her legs without taking her eyes off Adora.

She’s lining up her shot towards the hamper when Adora, voice still wobbly from her orgasm, stops her. “Wait,” she says. “We’re—I feel like we’re already so—I just mean… um. Can you pass me those? Is that okay? Is that weird?”

Glimmer looks at the basically saturated undergarment in her hand. Then she holds it out to Adora. “I want to see where _this_ goes,” is all she says.

Adora unfolds them and runs a thoughtful finger over the outside of the crotch of Glimmer’s panties. It’s not just damp—it’s nearly as sticky as the inside, and a strand of moisture stretches out from Adora’s finger as she slowly pulls it away. She looks at Glimmer to make sure she’s watching—Glimmer is definitely watching—and slowly licks the tip of that finger clean as she hands Glimmer’s panties back. Glimmer’s hands are shaking almost too hard to accept them, and she just kind of tosses them over the edge of the bed onto the floor. She’ll put them in the hamper later.

She’s as naked as Adora now, though she still hasn’t touched herself (and the exquisite ache is almost unbearable), but it’s Adora’s turn to stare at her. Glimmer kneels between Adora’s still-spread thighs, her own legs parted a little, and offers herself up to Adora’s hungry eyes.

Adora looks her up and down, from her sweaty hair to where her knees are touching the inside of Adora’s legs, and looks like she’s having a hard time speaking. “Glimmer, are… can… you watched me, can I—can I touch you now?”

Glimmer had been planning to get herself off at least once for Adora’s benefit, but if Adora would rather take care of that herself, Glimmer’s not going to argue. She smiles, and nods enthusiastically, and instead of waiting, she reaches out and takes Adora’s hand and guides it between her legs.

Adora really has no reason to look so surprised. She’s already felt how wet Glimmer got her panties. But as Adora’s fingers finally—finally, fucking _finally_ —reach their destination and find Glimmer utterly _dripping_ , she takes a shaky little breath of discovery. “Glimmer,” she breaths, practically a whisper, “I have _never_ felt you this wet.”

Glimmer shrugs. She’s not sure she can speak above a whisper right now either. “I don’t think I’ve ever _been_ this wet.”

That makes Adora chuckle, and she leans in to start kissing the side of Glimmer’s neck as her fingers continue to explore. “I love it. I love that you’re this hot for me. From watching _me_.” Glimmer shudders with pleasure as Adora rubs expert little circles around her throbbing clit. “I loved watching you watch me. Your eyes were so big.” Adora’s words are teasing, but her voice is full of genuine wonder.

She nibbles gently at Glimmer’s earlobe as she slips a finger into her. Glimmer moans, and captures Adora’s mouth in a kiss, grinding herself down on Adora’s hand. “More,” she says between kisses, “two fingers,” another kiss, another moan, “ _please_.” Adora gladly complies.

Glimmer’s expecting Adora to fuck her to orgasm right here, which should only take another minute or so, but—while Adora’s hand doesn’t stop doing what it’s doing to Glimmer—Adora’s using her other hand to gently push Glimmer back and lay her down flat on the bed. _As long as Adora keeps doing what she’s doing_ , Glimmer thinks, _she can put me anywhere she wants._

And Adora most certainly does. She keeps fucking Glimmer steadily with two fingers as she presses a slow line of kisses from Glimmer’s mouth, down her neck, her chest, her stomach… and the fingers don’t stop even as Adora’s tongue starts swirling around her clit. Glimmer grabs the back of Adora’s head and hangs on for dear life as Adora slowly makes her come apart.

They’ve barely caught their breath when they hear Catra’s voice from the hallway. “Glimmer? Adora? You guys in here?” Adora and Glimmer trade glances: Adora’s says _Why not?_ and Glimmer’s says _Hell yes._

“In he-ere!” Glimmer calls in a singsong. “Don’t open the door too wide when you come in.” She knows Catra knows what _that_ means, and the look on Catra’s face when she slips through the door, even before she sees her girlfriends sprawled nude on the bed, says it all.

Catra’s wearing one of Adora’s old shirts that she cut into a crop top for herself—to Adora’s mild dismay and Bow’s vocal approval—an almost indecently tiny pair of shorts, and a stunned look on her face. Adora waves cheerfully from where her cheek is still resting on Glimmer’s thigh.

“How was target practice?” she asks, as though Catra had walked in on her and Glimmer playing a game of cards. Catra’s mouth moves, but no sounds come out. Glimmer sighs a long, satisfied sigh that turns into a lascivious moan by the end, and she tilts her hips towards Adora’s nearby mouth.

“Tell you what,” Glimmer says to Catra in the same conversational tone. “Adora’s gonna do that to me again—aren’t you, Adora?” she asks sweetly, running a hand through Adora’s sweaty blonde tangles, “and if you want to stand there and watch us, that’s more than fine, but—ohhhh _fuck_ ,” she interrupts herself as Adora starts Round 2, “you could also come and sit on my face. Totally up to—gods, Adora, right there, fuck! T-totally up to you, Catra,” she finishes, sounding much less casual than when she started.

Catra’s already out of her clothes. She crosses the room, climbs into bed, and carefully arranges herself above Glimmer without a single word. Glimmer brings her hands up around Catra’s thighs, feeling the taut muscles there under the fur, and smiles up at her.

“You okay?” she asks when Catra’s still silent, and Catra nods immediately.

“Just, um…” And then Catra smiles down at her, half-impish and half-smitten. “Just feeling really lucky today.”

**Author's Note:**

> The Light Hope/Mara scene was inspired by the ODIN/Sareh _Tacoma_ fic “[A Little Curious](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903447)” by DropsAgainstTheSky.
> 
> Not much E-rated Catradora in this lately, so go read “[how bold one gets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24520750)” and “[kiss with a fist](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24588481)” + [redux](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24640801) by peachblossom. 🔥
> 
> Finally, it’s not a “rescue Angella” story, but for the record, I wouldn’t have written mine if I hadn’t read “[Death With Dignity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24486541)” by horde_princess.


End file.
